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This was a great week for Cork, as they celebrated the centenary of the birth of Christy Ring, the hurling legend.
One of his great passions was playing in the Munster championship and giving every last gram he had for Cork. For every game and every ball he threw. If you were looking down from above on Saturday, I’m sure you would be angry and disappointed at how easily they beat Cork.
This was a victory of more than four points for Waterford. They were by far the best team in all aspects of the game. They brought intensity and physicality, along with knowledge and skills.
Liam Cahill definitely knows how to beat Cork teams, and he continues his time with Tipperary junior squads. He always has his charges ready for battle, as well as having a good direct plan to keep his players on the field.
He expects each player to do the job that is entrusted to him and, tactically, he is very conscious of how to dictate the terms.
He also expects his players to be leaders. This was very evident on Saturday. All the main pitchers on display were from Waterford.
Shane McNulty, Conor Prunty, Calum Lyons, Kevin Moran, Stephen Bennett, Des Hutchinson and especially Jamie Barron and Tadhg de Burca, who was magnificent and deservedly got the Man of the Match. However, they all competed for that award before choosing a player from Cork.
Waterford must be very happy to be in a Munster final completely against all odds. And while this was a strange year, you still need to prepare well.
Cork didn’t seem to. From the beginning, they didn’t seem to have a plan. If they did, it was not carried out.
They lacked leaders, apart from Mark Coleman and Shane Kingston, and to a lesser extent Patrick Horgan, leadership was non-existent. Throwing for five or 10 minutes in any game is not good.
Leadership comes when your team really needs you, when things go against you, that’s when you have to do something about it. Cork didn’t have enough players doing that.
And I’m sure when you look back you will be very disappointed.
They have very good pitchers when things are going well, but when it goes the other way, some seem to hide.
The Munster Championship is not a place to hide, in fact inter-county hurling has no room for passengers.
They also seem to play a lot of individual pitches at times, when the collective approach would be much better.
I’m sure many Cork fans who are watching this game, and there are many, would be very disappointed with some of the lazy free games that Cork was giving away. When you start to do that, it tells me that you’re not really tuned in.
I would also say that they would be disappointed in the leadership of the management. Kieran Kingston and his selectors will have tough decisions to make this week.
It’s no longer enough to put the jersey over your head, you have to be able to fill that jersey when you play for a county like Cork.
Unfortunately, some of these players did not do that on Saturday. The selectors must remind him at every opportunity.
In addition, management has to examine itself and analyze the reasons why these players do not. This is where Kingston and company have to be strong and make tough decisions.
Sometimes it is not easy, but this is the reason why you get to get the job done. Do you have the best players on the field? Are they giving you their best effort? Or are they following the movements?
If the latter is the case, why are they still there? This is the responsibility of all management settings.
Some of Cork’s players have been failing for a while, getting into a comfort zone can be the cause of that at times.
That means you need to refresh it. That is if you have good enough players to bring. I’m sure a county the size of Cork should have them.
Also, I’m very surprised that the Blackrock County champions don’t even have a representative on the current panel.
Is there a reason for that? They’re not interested in it? Or are they just not good enough?
It’s going to be a great week for all the players and the management, as they are now in the playoffs with very little time to recover. It’s all or nothing as of now for this Cork team.
There will be no easy touch on the route of qualifiers.
The big question about this Cork team is now simple:
The one thing Cork teams always believe is that they are … but as many of their fans would say, it’s time they started to show it.
As would the great Christy Ring in his day.
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